In world history, those who have helped to build the same culture are not necessarily of one race, and those of the same race have not all participated in one culture. Ruth Benedict More Quotes by Ruth Benedict More Quotes From Ruth Benedict War is, we have been forced to admit, even in the face of its huge place in our civilization, an asocial trait. Ruth Benedict faces war civilization We do not see the lens through which we look. Ruth Benedict lenses unreasonable looks The peoples of the earth are one family. Ruth Benedict diversity brotherhood earth As a matter of history great developments in art have often been remarkably separate from religious motivation and use. Ruth Benedict motivation religious art It is strange how long we rebel against a platitude until suddenly in a different lingo it looms up again as the only verity. Ruth Benedict rebel different long In a world that holds books and babies and canyon trails, why should one condemn oneself to live day-in, day-out with people one does not like, and sell oneself to chaperone and correct them? Ruth Benedict baby book children . . . work even when I'm satisfied with it is never my child I love nor my servant I've brought to heel. It's always busy work I do with my left hand, and part of me watches grudging the wastes of a lifetime. Ruth Benedict left-hand children hands The Japanese are, to the highest degree, both aggressive and unaggressive, both militaristic and aesthetic, both insolent and polite, rigid and adaptable, submissive and resentful of being pushed around, loyal and treacherous, brave and timid, conservative and hospitable to new ways. Ruth Benedict degrees loyal brave Culture, with its processes and functions, is a subject upon which we need all the enlightenment we can achieve, and there is no direction in which we can seek with greater reward than in the facts of pre-literate societies. Ruth Benedict enlightenment culture needs We must accept all the implications of our human inheritance, one of the most important of which is the small scope of biologically transmitted behavior, and the enormous role of the cultural process of the transmission of tradition. Ruth Benedict inheritance roles important The prime lesson the social sciences can learn from the natural sciences is just this: that it is necessary to press on to find the positive conditions under which desired events take place, and that these can be just as scientifically investigated as can instances of negative correlation. This problem is beyond relativity. Ruth Benedict events science negative The heavier our bodies, the higher our will, our spirit, rises above them.' 'The wearier we are, the more splendid the training. Ruth Benedict training body spirit ... oh, I long to prove myself by writing! The best seems to die in me when I give it up. It is the self I love--not this efficient, philanthropic self. Ruth Benedict self writing long Most people are shaped to the form of their culture because of the enormous malleability of their original endowment. They are plastic to the moulding force of the society into which they are born. It does not matter whether, with the Northwest Coast, it requires delusions of self-reference, or with our own civilization the amassing of possessions. In any case the great mass of individuals take quite readily the form that is presented to them. Ruth Benedict self civilization people Western civilization, because of fortuitous historical circumstances, has spread itself more widely than any other local group that has so far been known. Ruth Benedict groups historical civilization I have always used the world of make-believe with a certain desperation. Ruth Benedict desperation believe world It is my necessary breath of life to understand and expression is the only justification of life that I can feel without prodding. Ruth Benedict justification expression feels Man is not committed in detail by his biological constitution to any particular variety of behavior. Ruth Benedict constitution details men
